Instead of studying leadership, why not spend some time studying leaders and strategies in the wild? You can learn a lot from leadership experts, but you always see the leader and what he or she does through the expert’s personal lens. Supplement that learning with studying real leaders in real life situations and draw your own conclusions. The posts in this series will help you.

Every week I’ll point you to articles by and about real leaders in real situations and to articles about how real companies are faring in the marketplace. Read them. Think about them. Draw your own lessons and conclusions from them. Then try to apply those lessons in your own real life.

This week I’m pointing you to articles about Elaine Agather, Anne Motsenbocker, Alice Rodriguez, Nancy McKinstry, Kevin Ozan, Buzzfeed, and Samuel Andrews.

From Jeff Bounds: Meet the Powerful Women Leaders at JPMorgan

“A trio of women run most of JPMorgan Chase’s North Texas operation, which employs 12,000 people locally. Although they share the same xx-chromosomes, they bring radically different leadership styles to their jobs. Elaine Agather, chair of the banking giant’s Dallas region, is a larger-than-life personality who has had to temper the blunt criticism she has sometimes delivered to subordinates. Anne Motsenbocker, who runs Chase’s middle market banking in the Midwest and South, is a self-described people pleaser who has learned tough lessons about making demands and doling out feedback. Alice Rodriguez, who’s forging Chase’s strategy in acquiring more everyday customers, had to learn how to connect with other leaders before peers would listen to her input at large company meetings.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

From Deborah Unger: Making Critical Decisions with Confidence

“Nancy McKinstry, CEO and chairman of Wolters Kluwer, explains how going digital is allowing a 183-year-old provider of specialist information and expert solutions to prosper in a data-driven world.”

From McKinsey & Company: Fast action’ in fast food: McDonald’s CFO on why the company is growing again

“Kevin Ozan became CFO of McDonald’s in 2015. Since then, the restaurant chain has had a string of successes. Here’s his take on what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next for the iconic brand.”

From Ben Thompson: The BuzzFeed Lesson

“If you remove the societal impact, just for a moment, the story of publishers’ demise — first newspapers, and now digital-only companies like BuzzFeed and Huffington Post, which both announced significant layoffs last week — is rather banal: infinite competition combined with an inferior product resulted in failed business models.”

From Shane Parrish: The Billion Dollar Ego

“We can learn valuable lessons from the life of Samuel Andrews. Haven’t ever heard of him? There’s a reason. He was John D. Rockefeller’s right-hand man, and stood to become one of the world’s richest men. But then something got in the way.”

For some ideas about how to get more from this series of posts, check out “Studying Leaders in the Wild.“